See What the End Shall Be – A Meditation on the Marcan Passion Narrative for Palm Sunday

The Passion which we read in today’s liturgy is too long to comment on in detail. We are only able to take a portion and examine it.

The usual villains such as the Temple leaders, Judas, and the recruited crowd, which shouted “Crucify him!” are fairly obvious in displaying their sinfulness and are unambiguously wicked. But there are others who participate in the Passion accounts whose sinfulness, struggles and neglect are more subtle, but still real and contribute significantly to the Lord’s sufferings on Good Friday. It is perhaps, in these figures that we can learn a great deal about ourselves. For while we may not overtly shout “crucify,” we are often not as holy and heroic as the persecutors were wicked and bold.

As these behaviors are noted, we must understand that WE do these things. For the Passion accounts are not merely portraits of people long gone, they are portraits of you and me. We do these things.

So, lets look at sins and weaknesses of Jesus followers (us) in three stages.

I. The Perception that is Partial – In the middle of the Last Supper, in today’s Gospel the disciples of Jesus are reminded of what the next days will hold. Jesus says,

All of you will have your faith shaken, for it is written: I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be dispersed. But after I have been raised up, I shall go before you to Galilee.

Note that the apostles are reminded of these facts since Jesus has said them before on a few occasions. For example:

From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. (Matt 16:21)

When they came together in Galilee, he said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men.They will kill him, and on the third day he will be raised to life.” And the disciples were filled with grief. (Matt 17:22-23)

We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will turn him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified. On the third day he will be raised to life!” (Matt 20:19)

Thus we see that the Lord has consistently tried to teach and prepare them for the difficulties ahead. He has told them exactly what is going to happen and how it will end: NOT in death, but rising to new life. But though he has told them over and over, they still do not understand or see. Thus he predicts that their faith in in will be shaken.

For their perception is partial and they will see only the negative, and forget that he has promised to rise. Since they cannot see beyond the apparent defeat of the moment they will retreat into fear and not boldly and confidently accompany him to his passion and glorification (for his passion IS is lifting up, his glorification). Instead they will flee. He has shown the “what the end shall be.” But they cannot see or accept it. Thus fear overwhelms them and draw back into a sinful fear and disassociation from Jesus. Only a few, Mary his Mother, John, Magdalene, and a few other women would see him through to the end.

But as for the rest, they see only what is gory and awful, and miss what is glorious and awesome. Yes, their perception is quite partial and their blindness comes, paradoxically, from not hearing or listening to what Jesus has been telling them all along.

We too can easily suffer from a blindness caused by poor hearing. For the Lord has often told us, that if we trust, our struggles will end in glory and new life. But, blind and forgetful, we give way to our fears and fail to boldly walk the way of Christ’s passion. We draw back and disassociate ourselves from Jesus and exhibit some of the same tendencies and problems we will now observe in the people of that day.

So lets examine some of the problems that emerge from the partial perception and forgetful fear of many of the disciples and others.

II. The Problems Presented - The problems that emerge are at least five. They are unhealthy and sinful patterns that emerge from the fear generated in not trusting Jesus vision and refusing to see it. We can consider them one by one. Please understand that the word “we” used here is shorthand and does not mean that every single person does this. Rather, it means that, collectively, we have these tendencies. But no need to take everything here personally.

A. DROWSY- One of the common human techniques for dealing with stress and the hardships of life is to just go numb and drowsy. We can just doze off into a moral sleep. Being vigilant to threats posed to our souls by sin, or the harm caused by injustice, (whether to ourselves or others) is just too stressful. So we just tune out. We stop noting or really even caring about critically important matters. We anesthetize ourselves with things like creature comforts, meaningless distractions, alcohol or drugs. We go into a kind of moral sleep and we begin to lack a prayerful vigilance. Prayer and spirituality pose too many uncomfortable questions. So we just tune out and daydream about meaningless things like what a certain Hollywood star is doing, or what the latest sports stats are.

In the passion accounts, Peter, James and John are personally asked by the Lord to pray with him. But they doze. Perhaps it is the wine. Surely it is the flesh (for the Lord speaks of it). But unwilling or unable to deal with the stress the Lord is clearly under, they just tune out, go numb, and doze off.

Grave evil is at the very door. But they sleep on. The Lord warns them to stay awake, lest they give way to temptation. But still they sleep.

Someone they know and love is in grave danger, but it is too much, so they just tune out, much as we tune out at the overwhelming suffering of Christ in the poor and needy. We just stop noticing. It’s too painful, so we tune out.

The Lord had often warned them to be vigilant, sober and alert (Mk 13:34, Matt 25:13, Mk 13:37; Matt 24:42; Luke 21:36, inter al). Other scriptures would later pick up the theme (Romans 13:11; 1 Peter 5:8; 1 Thess 5:6, inter al). For drowsiness is a significant and serious spiritual problem.

Sadly God described us well when he remarked to Isaiah: Israel’s watchmen are blind, they all lack knowledge; they are all mute dogs, they cannot bark; they lie around and dream, they love to sleep. (Is 56:10)

But, despite the sleepiness of the disciples, the wicked are still awake, and the threat does not go away by a drowsy inattentiveness to it. Thus we ought to be confident and sober. Life’s challenges are nothing to fear, for the Lord has told us we have already won, if we trust him. But the disciples have forgotten Jesus promise to rise after three days. And so, often, have we. So they, and we just give way to stress and tune out.

B. DISASSOCIATING- Peter, confronted with the fearful prospect of being condemned with Jesus denies that he knows him or is one of his followers. He disassociates himself from Christ. We too, confronted with the possibility of far lesser things like ridicule, will often deny a connection with the Lord or with the Church.

Someone might say of one of the more controversial passages of scripture (such as prohibitions on divorce, fornication, homosexual activity, commands to tithe, etc), “Oh, you don’t really believe that, do you?” And it’s too easy to give way to fear and either say “no” or to qualify our belief. Why suffer ridicule, endure further questioning, or experience the unpleasantry of debate?

So we just disassociate, compromise, or qualify our faith to avoid the stress.We even congratulate ourselves for being tolerant, etc. when we do it.

Jesus says, If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels. (Mat 16:21). But too easily we ARE ashamed.

And so, like Peter, we engage in some form of denial. Peter was afraid because he has forgotten to “see what the end shall be.” He has forgotten that Jesus will rise after three days. So too do we often forget that. So we lack confidence and give way to fear, and we deny, so as to avoid suffering with Jesus.

C. DODGING – Simply put, when Jesus is arrested, all the disciples except John split. They “get the heck out of Dodge.” They are nowhere to be found. One of them, (could it be Mark himself?) ran off naked.

After Jesus’ arrest, it is said that Peter, prior to his own denials had followed the Lord, “at a distance” (Mk 14:54) but as soon as trouble rose, he too scrammed.

And we too can run. Sometimes it’s persecutions from the world. But sometimes its just our own self-generated fear that following the Lord is too hard, and involves too many sacrifices we are just not willing to make. Maybe it will endanger our money since the Lord insists that we tithe and be generous to the poor. Maybe it will endanger our playboy lifestyle since the Lord insists on chastity and respect. Maybe we are doing something we have no business doing, that is unjust, excessive or sinful. But, rather than face our fears, whether from within or without, we just high-tail it out.

The disciples forgot that Jesus has shown them what the end shall be. In three days he would win the victory. But, this forgotten, their fears emerged and they ran. We too, must see what the end shall be to resist and confront our many fears.

D. DEFLECTING – Now in this case our example is Pontius Pilate, not one of the disciples. But the fact is that Pilate was summoned to faith, just like anyone else. “Are you a King?” he asked Jesus. And Jesus responds by putting Pilate on trial: “You say so.” In other words, “It is you who have said these words. Do you think they are true?”

The fact is, Pilate has a choice to make. Either he will accept what Jesus is saying as true, or he will give way to fear and commit a terrible sin of injustice. Now the texts all make it clear that Pilate knew Jesus was innocent. But, because he feared the crowds he handed Jesus over.

Now, note PILATE did this. The crowds tempted him through fear, but HE did the condemning. Yet note that he tries to deflect his choice. Mark says he handed Jesus over to please the crowd, But Matthew adds, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd. “I am innocent of this man’s blood,” he said. “It is your responsibility!” (Mat 16:21). Well, actually Pilate it is also YOUR responsibility. You had a choice and you made. Your own career and hide were more important that justice. And, though you wanted to do what was right and were sympathetic with Jesus, merely wanting to do what is right is not enough.

So too for us. We also will favor our career or hide over what is right. And in so doing we will often blame others for what we freely choose. “I am not responsible, my mother dropped me on my head when I was two” ….etc.

In effect we are often willing to say, “Look Jesus, I love you. You get my Sundays, and my tithe and, generally I obey you. But you have to understand, I have a career, I need to make money for my family. If I really stand up for what is right, I might not make it in this world. You understand, don’t you?…I know the company is doing some things that are unjust, I know the world needs a clearer witness from me….and I’ll do all that, after I retire. But for now…..well, you know. It’s really may boss whose to blame. It’s this old hell bound sin soaked world that’s to blame. Not me!” And we wash our hands and excuse our silence and inaction in the face of injustice and sin.

And all this is done in fear. We forget what the end shall be and get focused on the fearful present. We lack the vision Jesus is trying to give us that in three days we will rise with him. But we stay blind to that and only see the threat of now.

III. The Path that is Prescribed – OK, by now you ought to know the path that is prescribed: See what the end shall be! In three days we rise! Why are we afraid? Jesus has already won the victory. It is true, we get there through the cross. But, never forget what the end shall be! Today we read the Gospel of Friday, but wait till Sunday morning! I’ll rise!

We end where we began with this gospel: All of you will have your faith shaken, for it is written: I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be dispersed. But after I have been raised up, I shall go before you to Galilee.

Yes, after he has been raised, he goes before us into Galilee. And for us, Galilee is heaven. Whatever our sorrows, if we are faithful we will see Jesus in the Galilee of heaven. Never forget this vision. After three days we will rise with him and be reunited in Galilee.

So take courage, see what the end shall be! The end for those who are faithful is total victory. We don’t need to drowse, destroy, deny, dodge and deflect. We’ve already won. All we need to do is hold out.

An old Gospel songs says, I promised the Lord that I would hold out! He said he’s meet me in Galilee! So hold out, Galilee is not far, in three days we rise with him.

15 Responses

There are many who do not act as you describe, Monsignore
There are many who do not distance themselves from The Lord at all.

I can mention several, I have already mentioned the WBC, but there are many more.
Becky Fisher for instance.

But foremost is probably The Army of God, (the anti-abortion group).
They are surely not afraid to express their loyalties.

You should take the time to write to those of them who are in jail, by the way.
I already have of course, but they will probably apreciate more letters
.
But anyway, there ARE groups out there who are not afraid to display their loyalties, and do not distance themselves from The Lord nomatter how unpopular.

Granted, most of these groups are unfortunately not Catholic.
I wish they were, but it is better than nothing I suppose.

And if the state of Catholicism in general is as Monsignore Pope describes above, then there is not much salt left in The Church anyway, I guess.,.

Are you referring to the Westboro Baptist Church, the group that vilifies homosexual persons in the worst ways possible? Are you referring to the same Army of God that promotes shooting doctors? Are you seriously promoting those groups?

What a great reflection to begin Palm Sunday!
Thank you for sharing your wisdom with us!

Note to Gabriel- we all, every one of us, act this way at one time or another-no matter how deeply we love the Lord. The Msgr. has given an honest assessment of the human condition.We can always strive to do better and be closer to Him.
There is MUCH salt left in the Church! Please look around.

I think comments regarding “feminism being the whore of babylon” are a little misplaced during Holy week. I hold no brief for feminism, however I do feel that if the Catholic church spent one tenth the amount of time condeming men and boys who pressure women and girls for sex or *******or whatever as they spend condemning contraception, it might be possible to put the abortion mills and BCP manufacturers out of business. The Catholic church is, however, too great a coward to condemn MALE promiscuity, and therefore focuses on women as easier game.

I trust that since the “whore of babylon” comment was considered passing censorship, this comment will be also.

Well, it did pass, except I had to delete your crude reference. As for your complaint about “the Catholic church” (sic) I would say this little sector of the the Catholic Church has “condemned” men and boys, most recently in a post on Good Girls DC and in numerous other posts on sexuality and even in my infamous sermon clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=iu0GqDojtTU

Your concerns about the “whore of babylon” comment is quite valid. But frankly the rest of it comes off as sneering and unfair.

Well, I did read the Good Girls blog but I must say I have only started to explore your blog (which is actually rather good). I came accross it by accident a little while ago. I apologize for being unfair to you.

However here in my little part of the Catholic church not only is the entire 40 days of Lent devoted to prayer that women will turn to Life etc., but every single Sunday we pray for “courageous men and women to become priests, deacons and nuns” (good luck with the latter) and once a month somebody gets up to rail against contraception. We aint had one sermon suggesting that it is immoral to pressure women for sexual favors, and I do know that it is extremely difficult for women and girls in the local high schools (heck even in the Catholic mixed school one of my kids was at) to make it through a week without such pressure.

One can’t help but feel that Catholic church does not respect women. As a convert (from the Episcopal church) I do sometimes wonder why I left.

A truly passionate and inspiring post and, yes we can and should always strive to do better. It brings to mind a time during my childhood when I listened, with great discomfort, to an Easter sermon wherein was spent a fair amount of time being scornful and derisive toward the scribes and pharisees. Hadn’t the three year mission been about love, forgiveness, salvation and more of the same? Hadn’t so very many centuries passed so that it was time to lay down the burden?
When I returned to active practice of my faith, in I learned of many little known gems in Holy Scripture such as; Matthew 6:14&15 Luke 6:37. It only seems to apply to sins which have been done to me but, the effect(s) of their persecution may have rippled through the centuries to affect all of us in some way and, saying a prayer of forgiveness for any sin of theirs which may have carried through to me released me of that old nagging worry.
At any rate, I went to mass yesterday on Palm Sunday and decided to follow up by going to a service at a local street mission which showed this truly awesome video at the end; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YByT6wfdhJs&feature=related
Also, I’ve posted my Easter card poem for this year around but yesterday I received this one and would like to share ti with whoever would like it or would like to pass it on. Don’t be shy, no copyright on this.

Friday began with Judas’ betrayal
Then came three times, … Peter’s denial
And then the cock, crowed loudly two times
Then He was accused of treasonous crimes
He was tied to a pillar; whips tore sacred skin
Shedding blood of the Lamb from holy heart deep within
Then the soldiers placed Him stripped in a chair
And put a reed, not a sceptre, in His hand sitting there
A crown of thorns tore the skin on His Head
Onto a soldier’s cloak it dripped as it bled
They were but common soldiers who rallied around
The Empire stood because of their blood on the ground
Without soldiers where’s the power of generals and kings?
Wasted would be the deeds of which a bard boldly sings
But what of the derision, what of the blows?
Can a coronation be valid when abuse only shows?
Well who but a humble King would that willingly greet?
A humble King who’d washed His followers’ feet.
But where was the confirmation that must be said and be heard?
For only the emporor or his delegate could give the con-firming word
Yet the scribes & the pharisees asked that, “King of the Jews” be smitten
But the Roman governor said, “What I have written I have written”

And, just in case someone is still looking for an Easter greeting to pass on there’s;

When the sun arose
To the sky on Easter Morning
The empty tomb gave notice
Of a new day aborning
That was proclaimed across the land
Spreading from nation to nation
Letting us know the good news
Of God’s love and salvation

Toward darkness the Light did boldly walk
Teaching still with Holy talk
Caring about the least most of all
Doing the will of His Father’s call
Now centuries later we forty days
Will share a little His courageous ways
Of bringing Himself as sacrifce
He is more than enough and will suffice.

When Easter Time comes in the Spring
The flowers sprout and the birds will sing
As so much new life bursts around us
We recall when renewed life made a great fuss
A long while ago in a time of Salvation
That fulfilled a plan made in early Creation
When our ransom was paid by the Son, God the Word
In the days when His message of Love was first heard.

Genesis 22:1-18 John 19:17
In obedience to his father
The son carried the wood on his shoulder
As he climbed up the side of the mountain
Where there was many a rock and a boulder
“Where is the lamb?” asked the son
“The lamb for the sacrifice?”
For grain or oil wouldn’t be enough
Only a lamb would suffice
“God will provide the lamb.” said the father
As he prepared the one whom he’d waited for
The son he was promised in his youth
Then had waited many decades & more
Until, with his knife poised over the alter
He was stopped when ready to offer his “lamb”
Then he sacrificed a sheep with horn in bush
But the sheep was not a lamb but a ram.
For centuries the question hovered unanswered
As empires were built and then fell
While the people went to Egypt and to Babylon
And were returned, ’twas a great tale to tell
Until a humble King was born in a stable
And slept His first night in a manger in hay
While His Father’s servants filled the sky
In honour of that great special day
Then the Father’s Son went to River Jordan
Where many were baptized by a man whose food was quite odd
A man who answered that age old question
“There is the Lamb of God!”
So the Lamb spent several years teaching
To many a faithful beholder
Until He climbed up the side of the mountain
Where there was many a rock and a boulder
So that, in obedience to His Father
The Son carried the wood on His shoulder.

Note; I realize that this poem doesn’t carry on to
the third day but, as many are fond of saying, “The
rest is history.”